Walking With the Gentle Giants

The night before our trip, my mother texted me to bring home an elephant tusk.

Sure, I replied. Let's see if I can get it past the Bureau of Customs when I go home next year. Tsk, tsk. Sometimes, my mother has this ridiculous ideas (nagmana din sa anak).

The Lampang Elephant Conservation Center is the only elephant center in the whole world that has a hospital for injured elephants. It is about 30 minutes away from the main city of Lampang.

We had a bunch of pictures from this trip since we couldn't get enough of these Dumbo's. But I selected here some of the best.....

We were finally inside the Elephant Center. Entrance fee is 80 baht.

This train-like vehicle roams around the place to get you to different points.You just need to show the entrance pass and you can ride all you want for free!

At exactly nine o'clock, the elephants would get to have their bath while their trainers are riding on their back. 

While the elephants ascended from the lake, newly washed, we had so much fun running around to take photos with them to the point of exhaustion. While running around, we were also on alert to make sure that we will not fall victims when they spew water out of their trunks.

This is probably the most poignant part of the trip when the elephants marched rhythmically to the sound of the gong going to the area where they are going to have a performance. I just stood right there and then and thought: "Wow. So this is how it must be when those giant reptiles walked on the Earth. Just, wow."

And yes, these dumbos can in  fact paint. The paintings go to the highest bidders after the show.

Meet Pai Yao, the 36 year old elephant. So happy to have ridden on you, you gentle dumbo! :)

I didn't get to bring an elephant tusk for nanay, though. I couldn't have the heart to break one from these gentle giants. Yes, they're too gentle that "Dumbo" doesn't seem appropriate for them, I realized...:)